Aaarrgggghhhh - what to do - photo related

Hiya!

Will u get all the copyright of the photos? Cause if so once you have them you can start play with them and print them your self. I have seen on groupons loads of offers for amazing albums for less then £20.

i was looking on gumtree today and seen some photograpghers who wanted to do some weddings for free for their portofilo. Maybe have a look on there.

I went with someone who was recommanded and i got a cheaper rate for this reason. We knew straight away cause he made us feel at ease and really liked his work. Dont worry what other people think its what you 2 want.

I think you probably need to consider what's more important to you - having a really experienced photographer and paying the price that comes with that or having the extra cash to be used elsewhere. What do you think of OH's sister's photos? Does she like them?

What would you regret more - if the photos were only ok (not saying they will be, they could equally be amazing) and you were able to afford extra things instead, would you look back and wish you'd spent that extra on the photos? Or if you went with the more expensive one and had to budget elsewere, do you think you'd regret that?

For us we really wanted amazing photos but we simply couldn't afford upwards of £1,000 for it without making huge sacrifices elsewhere. We've gone mid-range and hoping that our photos look as nice as the ones in the TOGs portfolio.

And as for how often you'll look at them - I asked my BM for a look at her wedding photos recently (she's been married for 5 years and they put a lot of time, research and funds into their photos) and she couldn't even remember where she put the album for a little while and couldn't remember the last time she looked at it!

Yeah we get the copyright, and can print all the photos as many times as we want!

I saw that gumtree offer - but Im getting married in June 2012, but I might still contact them!

Thanks for your advice!!

We've gone with someone who is starting out too our budget was always going to mean we were looking at starters or semi-pros. Next year will be our togs first wedding season and she only had one wedding in her portfolio to show us. However her excitement and vibe really won us over; she seems more excited than us to be shooting the wedding!

I would go with who you think is best.

Money at the moment is the most important thing to us, we want to make sure our wedding is great but that it doesnt spiral money wise out of control (which Ive found can happen very easily and we are adament that it wont happen)

We have seen the photos and think they are really good. Im not an expert or anything but they do seem good.

We would really love a video of the day too and if we went for the cheaper photographer then we could have both!

I think I might already know what we are going to do......the cheaper one.

Making decisions for our wedding is proving difficult. I dont want to look back and think we got anything wrong.

I'm paying £1100 for a full day disc only package. I don't consider this to be very expensive for the quality of the photos. The photography is very important to me an I'm a bit fussy, but to be honest I haven't found many that I like for less than £1000 for a disc only package.

Sorry, didn't realise that it was a disc-only package. Does seem a bit expensive. I'd got with the cheaper one too and have the VOG as well - bonus!

As an aside, a couple of TOGs said to us that they don't like doing disc only packages because they want to be able to showcase their work in the best possible way and trotting along to Boots & printing off 1000 6x4 copies of their photos doesn't do that. So with that in mind, £1000 seems a bit steep.

If you were happy with the cheaper TOGs pictures I would go for that one. I think as long as you get the pictures you want and they are in focus and with no heads chopped off then it is good enough but that is just me. I don't plan on having a professional pore over them looking for faults. My TOG is very experienced but is also very reasonable compared to some new more expensive wedding TOGS and I opted for him based on this and his previous work. I will probably watch my video more than I look at the photo's after the event.

It's all relative. I know the value of my photos and can easily spot poor images, bad use of flash etc.

You don't see this, but your parents do etc so buy to suit yourself. The second photographer being 1/3 of the first is a pretty strong pull and those just starting out can have more enthusiasm than the pro who's been doing it for years.

However, you DO get what you pay for and photos are all you will have afterwards apart from memories and the marriage license.

One way to look at it is this, the photographer has told you they are cheap because they are just starting out, which is true but in other words they probably have no real expertise or experience.

Photoshop is ok to fix bad framing but it can't undo a poor image and once the day is over there's no retakes.

X factor is on Sky+ at the moment and it can be likened to that, lots of people are starting out thinking they can sing when they really can't and will tell you anything they can to get the business so they don't have to work the 9-5. Similar things happening out there with photography, cake makers, make up artists etc.

It's not my attempt to put you off but I hear a lot of complaints about other togs from guests I meet at weddings who take the gamble and it doesn't pay off.

I would go see another photographer which is priced in the middle and then that may help with your decision, Theres nothing worse than booking one and then thinking you should have booked the other. Make sure you are 100% sure when you book.

What part of the country are you getting married? some here may know some middle ground photographers.

£360 does seem very cheap but starting up photographers can often produce some lovely pictures.

£1150 is very expensive for cd only and for that i would expect amazing pictures.

If you have seen examples of the second TOG's work and you are happy with it then I say go with it... Thats a massive difference in price and if you are on a tight budget, just imagine what the extra money you would save from the first TOG could go towards! We are using a TOG who has 2 wedding season's experience, however having seen examples of his work we are more than happy, especially as e is charging a fraction of what other togs are charging!

Wow it's a tough decision and lots of very reasoned valuable advice. One thing with pricing. Disc only packages often are based on the amount of editing time not just the hours used on the day. You could go back to the more expensive one and see if they can half the amount of edited photos to get the price down. Do you need hundreds and hundreds of edited pictures. Do you really need 10 hours or could you cut that back to 7 for example.

I have had the pleasure of working with lots of photographers so I have become more aware now of the differences. When I look back at my wedding photos we had done that I thought were amazing at the time, I can see the differences now. They are good not exceptional. A lot of the difference is to do with over use/ poor use of flash and the lense qualtiy. One really good photographer I have worked who is in the Hitched directory doesn't used flash hardly at all and his work is amazing using the natural light. I'm sure he would be happy to quote for you if he's free. (Message me I send you the Name)

Look at the photos again. Do they look natural or do the people look unaturally bright. If so that will be the flash! Also really good quality lenses allow more artistic use of depth of field. What does that mean it means focusing say on your shoes (Nice and crisp) and everything in the back ground, yourself and your husband kissing blurred. This gives a romantic and quality feel to the pictures. When I look at my own wedding pictures I can see there is no variety in the lenses that was use becuase they all look the same, pretty much everything looks in focus foreground and background.

Lack of experience normally does show in the poses that a photograph chooses. The less experiences ones tend to play it very safe and follow traditional poses that they have copied, or just bundle people together. Sometime not see the obvious like gaps between people, a wedding dress all rucked up at the bottom, or people and vehicles in the background..... Help!

These are some of my experiences we have done nearly 300 weddings so thats a lot of photographers we have worked with.

Get a few more quotes and looking at lots of pictures will help you feel more confident with your decision.

Best of luck

Laura Berry x

PS if it helps send me the website details and pictures from your sisters wedding and i'll have a look at them for you.

You need to think about the value of the photography to you, then make your decision based on this alone.

We realised that wedding rings and photos were essentially the only things we would be left with after the wedding day (apart from each other obviously). I had a budget of £1000 but have ended up spending £1550 for a disc of images package. First and foremost I am happy to pay this as I love the photos our photographers capture, and importantly, I feel comfortable with them and they are people I would be happy to share my wedding day with.

I accepted the cost by figuring this out:

Two photographers putting in roughly 19 hours of time on our wedding = them earning about £40 per hour each. I have probably underestimated the amount of time they spend doing things too so in reality this 'per hour' figure is probably a little too high.

For their talent, and the way we get on with them (with them putting us at ease very quickly) I am happy to pay that 'per hour rate'.

In case anyone is interested this is the way I figured it out:

Pre wedding shoot - we were with them for 3 hours. I estimated another 2 hours on top of this processing the pics and getting them loaded up onto their website for us to see

Wedding - they are both with us for 10 hours on the day. I estimated another 3 hours processing. We then meet up with them to see the pics a few weeks later - so another hour.

Like I said, I have probably underestimated this. Id be interested to see what photographers say about the amount of time that goes into each wedding in reality.